whitesoxfan101

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 04:50 PM) Haha, where did you hear this? There was nothing but talk from the people who think its a drag on resources(who habitually complain about Chris Lowerys contract, the Saluki way, anything sports involved that requires university money). There was no action or attempted action to drop football. Of course, while i was there, nobody would have noticed it was gone I had read and heard in more than one place that they considering dropping football in the late 90's before Kill arrived. I'm not going on any sources here though, so it could be wrong of course. Still did a great job there though.

Of course it was lame. But the fact I had to defend Bill Self tells you all you need to know about Bruce Weber. He's a fraud at levels I can't begin to explain. At least Self doesn't stand on a false premise of personal morality like Bruce tries to.

I don't even think Bruce can mess this up. If Legion hasn't decided to transfer to Illinois by mid next week after his visit, I'd be shocked.

His numbers, which already stood on their merit, are now even more impressive when you consider he's one of the few, the proud, the clean. His on field accomplishments and the way he attained them can never be debated, he's an all time great and hall of famer. And he needs to get his 2000 MVP award that is so deserved.

Can't be Wolfe, because he's not southern (thank God).

At least Self doesn't have a convicted felon on his team who left a teammate for dead taking a redshirt year as "punishment".

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 11:34 AM) It's Kill. I have hard time getting into 1aa football so I don't know a ton about the football team but from everything I do know, Kill completely turned around a SIU program that was one of the worst and made them one of the best. Seems like a great hire for NIU. Long night last night and now day today. (I had a final at 9 and then had to be at the press conference at 11:30 here). The best things I can say about him is he took a program that had 10 straight losing seasons, 4 fired failures at coach, and a program which was so bad that they almost dropped football and turned it into 5 straight winning season and 1-AA playoff spots and 3 straight league titles in the Gateway, which is really as good as it gets in terms of 1-AA leagues. Combining that with the record he had before that as well and the fact he won a national coach of the year award, I really like the hire. Hell, Bart Scott from the Ravens actually voluntarily contacted the university during the search process and today once he learned Kill was hired just to say how great he is. I'm sold. Kill is actually getting a good situation. Yeah we sucked last year, but only 8 seniors are gone and 10 scholarships are open for this class, so he can ease his way in. And next years team, if it even stays moderately healthy (which this years team didn't) could be really good, and will have I believe 26 seniors on scholarship, most of which are really damn good. Plus, we have the brand new facilities and Chicago right down the road, so recruiting isn't too difficult as it is. Question for any SIU fans here that might know: What kind of offense and defense does he run? All I remember from seeing them this year when they came up here was a pretty balanced run/pass play call style, and a lot of shotgun.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 13, 2007 -> 01:40 PM) It is not official yet. But it is looking good right now. Yeah, that's an accurate way of putting it. Legion has for sure decided to go to Illinois, but all the I's have yet to be dotted and T's yet to be crossed. But unless something strange happens, Legion to Illinois looks likely.

DePaul pulls an Illinois and blows a huge lead to a team ranked in the 20's and loses in overtime. Vandy improves to 10-0 despite not really showing up for most of the night. And Maryland lost at home, to OHIO. That is the worst OOC loss I've seen for Illinois in years (at least since Bail was coach), the game to the Terps.

I've concluded that Patrick Sharp is my favorite player. That means nothing but I figured I'd let everybody know anyways.

@ the Joe Buck thing. So true.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 09:15 PM) Houston is currently 3/18 from the Free Throw line against Detroit. Who here feels they could beat Houston's entire team at a game of Horse by going to the FT line? And they still won, amazing. Ended up 6/22. Also, the Bulls suck, the Knicks LOST AT HOME TO SEATTLE (!!!!) and Orlando forgot how to play all of a sudden, Dallas is really struggling, and Portland is improving.

The Hawks are all I got in terms of professional teams that don't suck, so keep improving guys. Please.

The fact that 25 percent of the offseason goal of a 90 loss, 4th place team with no farm system was getting Carlos Quentin tells you all you need to know about how stupid the guy running the show is.

NIU is hiring a new coach tomorrow at 11 AM, and I take back whatever I said earlier because nobody has a clue who it is. I just know it's not McCarney, and it could be Chuck Martin, Jerry Kill, or somebody else (lol). I take pride on knowing stuff early in regards to NIU and Illinois athletics, but I'm completely clueless on this one.

Like I said with Fukodome, this is truly a blessing in disguise. QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 03:40 PM) That's a steal.

Good thing we waited until after losing Fernando Hernandez to do this. KW strikes again.

Olivo, Koch, and Rowand are 3 former names I wonder about.

Yeah there is a plain: Suck until a GM with a clue can be hired and try and fix it.

Thome will be on there I bet. It would be a fitting kick in the balls with the way this offseason has went.

What kind of GM builds a team with two 3rd basemen, two left fielders, no center fielders, and Gavin Floyd as a 5th starter?

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 01:28 AM) The one and only thing that has been tough this offseason is Cabrera landing on a division rival. Not our not getting him- that was never expected. I have no problems with any of the moves Williams has made or not made. The problem really isn't this offseason, it's the entire pathetic history of KW as GM in regards to our farm system, and the simultaneous aging of our major league roster while having no said farm system to replenish talent.

QUOTE(Chombi @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 01:34 AM) That is the point of the firesale. Our organization may be in a pathetic state but we do have veteran tools to accomplish a very good one. Not quite a great one since we don't have a Miggy, Johan or Bedard but we have a lot of guys who can land One or two quality guys, if not one 5 star guy. Don't worry bout doing all of them. I didn't. They will all gradually be touched on if this works itself out. Just small contributions here and there and we can see where it goes. Maybe decide towards the end of the thread what ideas we liked best and vote on them or something. That is a firesale, but to me a firesale is like what the Marlins did after 1997, they had a ton to trade, traded it, and got a lot of tools that helped them in 2003 at all levels. We don't have the tools to do that, although a firesale would at least restock our farm system to being average, but the odds of that working out enough to bring us back as a team that can win it all aren't too high. That is assuming KW did it right, which is a leap of trust I'm not willing to take.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 01:29 AM) That's why we brought in Chizik. We're not content with what we had. We've gone too long without making noise in the Big 12, and there's o reason it can't be done. We were damn close to beating a damn good OU team this year. We want to get that ball rolling. Iowa's in progress collapse as a football program, which is blatently obvious to everyone except (not surprisingly) Iowa fans, will really aid your resurgence.

Our organization is so pathetic, we don't even have the tools to firesale. But we'd be wise to trade Konerko, Thome, Dye, Crede, hope Contreras starts hot and trade him in season, and take back the epically awful Linebrink signing. I'd tell you some rumored deals, but that's too many names to do that for.